Politics
Abaribe Advocates Full Electronic Voting To Enthrone Credible Elections

The Senator-elect for Abia South Senatorial District, Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe, has called for full electronic voting in the country in order to enthrone transparent and credible elections.
Abaribe was re-elected for a sixth tenure in the Upper Chamber in last Saturday’s National Assembly (NASS) elections on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
He spoke on his victory and the challenges that characterised the electoral process in an interview with newsmen in his Obingwa country home on Thursday.
He said: “I am one of those that believed that the process of the elections was flawed.
“But I call for calm and peace and people should resort to the legal means to redress the error.
“It is such a bloody shame that INEC will manipulate the scores by candidates.
“It happens because the result sheets are in the hands of INEC officials.
“We should introduce full electronic voting that is tamper-proof.
“It is possible. We are in electronic age.
“It is time we got adapted to modern technology.
“We cannot continue to play with our existence.”
The former Senate Minority Leader said that it had become shameful that the country’s electoral process was still being conducted manually.
He said that the practice where result sheets were often mutilated with written, cancelled and re-written scores in the process of falsification to rig elections was debasing to the country’s image.
Abaribe said that INEC dashed the people’s hope for a fair and credible exercise with its failure to achieve electronic transmission of results from the polling units to its portal.
“Throughout its planning stages, INEC kept assuring us that it was prepared to conduct credible elections so we thought that everything would work smoothly,” he said.
According to him, the transmission of results electronically failed, coupled with the failure of other logistics for the distribution of electoral materials.
“The sensitive materials did not arrive early and they were found in the hands of those, who had no business with them,” he further said.
Abaribe, who polled 49,693 votes, also spoke on how he roundly defeated Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu, who came a distant third with 28,422 votes.
“The margin of defeat would have been massive, if the process had worked well without hitches here and there,” he said.
He attributed his victory to his quality representation to his constituency and being closer to the grassroots.
“My title is “Mma aya (sword) Ndigbo worldwide.
“I have the love of the Igbo nation. My people love me.
“It is good to always be with your people, stand for them always and make yourself accessible to them.
“My people showed me love and it is sweet victory for the downtrodden, civil servants and pensioners, who are owed arrears of salaries,” he said.
He promised to reward his constituents for their trust by remaining a strong and consistent voice in the National Assembly.
Abaribe took a swipe at the outgoing Ikpeazu-led administration for its lacklustre performance in eight years.
“Abia gets tax revenue, revenue from oil derivation and not owed Federal Allocation for both the state and Local Government councils yet the government cannot pay salaries and pensions,” he said.
Abaribe, who was a founding member of PDP, said that the party’s poor showing in the NASS election had further buried PDP in Abia.
“PDP is gone and buried along with the Progressive Peoples Alliance that transmutted itself into PDP.
“They have ended up grounding the party and themselves,” he said, adding that APGA would work hard to install Prof. Greg Ibe as the next governor.
“We will fight for Ibe to become the governor to repair the rot that the PDP-led government had caused in its eight years in the state,” he said.
Politics
Reps Constitution Review Committee Holds Zonal Hearing For Rivers, C’River, Akwa Ibom In Calabar

A press statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Cross River State Governor, Mr Linus Obogo, disclosed that the Calabar Centre — designated as Centre B — will host representatives and stakeholders from Cross River, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom States.
The public hearing is scheduled to take place on Saturday, July 19, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. at the Transcorp (Metropolitan) Hotel, Calabar.
The initiative, according to the statement, is designed to promote inclusive dialogue and capture the aspirations of Nigerians from all regions.
It aims to serve as a platform for citizens to contribute meaningfully to the ongoing national efforts to refine and strengthen the country’s legal and institutional frameworks.
“Citizens, civil society groups, professional bodies, traditional rulers, and other interest blocs are invited to participate in this landmark engagement aimed at advancing a more just, equitable, and responsive Nigerian Constitution,” the statement read.
The hearing forms part of the broader review process of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and is seen as a strategic move toward fostering national unity and addressing structural legal issues within the federation.
Politics
Tinubu’s Contribution To Buhari’s Presidency Marginal – Ex-SGF

For the first time since 2022, when then-presidential aspirant Alhaji Bola Tinubu declared he made former President Buhari Nigeria’s President in 2015, Mr Mustapha dismissed the claims, stressing that the merger only contributed about three million votes in addition to Buhari’s existing 12 million votes in the North.
He insisted that former President Buhari’s integrity, national stature, and disciplined messaging were central to the breakthrough, not the three million votes from the merging parties, which he described as insignificant.
Speaking on the role of the merging parties, particularly President Tinubu, the leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mr Mustapha, who was the keynote speaker at the launch of the book ‘According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesman’s Experience’ authored by Mallam Garba Shehu, described the impact of the votes from other merging parties as very insignificant.
In attendance were former Head of State Yakubu Gowon, chair of the event; immediate past Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; SGF George Akume, who represented President Tinubu; PDP’s 2023 presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar; former Chief of Staff to Buhari Ibrahim Gambari; elder statesman Babagana Kingibe; former governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Chris Ngige (Anambra), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Raji Babatunde Fashola (Lagos); former ministers Solomon Dalung and Sunday Dare; former Army Chief Tukur Buratai, and Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu’s spokesman, among others.
According to Mr Mustapha, “I do not intend to stir up any controversy. The merger in 2013 was midwifed to create a Buhari presidency. Let us look at the statistics. In the 2003 election, it was the Obasanjo-Buhari presidential contest where Buhari recorded 12.7 million votes. In 2007, it came to 6.6 million, and it went back to 12.2 million in 2011.
“When we were conceptualising the merger, what would give us a headstart? Obviously, it was at the back of our consciousness that the merger with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), though it had only one state, the ACN had six states, ANPP three states, and when you sum up the total votes that we had as the presidency in 2015, the aggregate of the total votes was 15.4 million.
“So, basically, what we brought to the table after the merger outside the Buhari 12.5 million votes was three million. Before turning to that presidency, it is important to recognise the former President’s role in reshaping Nigeria’s political trajectory.
“In early 2013, as the leader of the CPC, Buhari formally requested and supported the creation of a CPC merger committee, part of a broader coalition-building process that brought together the ACN, ANPP, APGA faction, and elements of the ruling party through the breakaway ‘new PDP’ group. His endorsement and participation, along with other party leaders such as President Tinubu and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, lent credibility and direction to the merger, helping to unify disparate party factions under the banner of the APC. That coalition-building paved the way for the first democratic defeat of an incumbent ruling party in Nigeria’s history.
“President Buhari’s integrity, national stature, and disciplined messaging were central to that breakthrough. No account of President Buhari’s tenure would be complete without acknowledging the extended periods he spent on medical leave. These moments, while politically delicate, were also telling of his leadership philosophy and personality,” he said.
In his remarks, President Tinubu promised to build on the legacies of former President Buhari, stressing that “nation-building is a relay. The efforts of one administration lay the foundation for the next.
“In this regard, I acknowledge the efforts of my predecessor, President Buhari, and assure all Nigerians that the reform-oriented path he initiated will be consolidated and strengthened under this administration. Our Renewed Hope Agenda is inspired by the desire to build a resilient, just, and inclusive Nigeria—a nation that delivers dividends of democracy to all its citizens”.
Politics
Your Lies Chasing Investors From Nigeria, Omokri Slams Obi
Speaking during an appearance on live television on Wednesday, Mr Omokri alleged that Mr Obi’s statements were misleading and damaging to the country’s economic prospects.
Mr Omokri said some investors currently operating in Nigeria were considering exiting the market due to Mr Obi’s remarks.
“That is not true. He doesn’t rile me up. I rile him up. The reason why I came here is because I’m a patriot. Peter Obi lied. You know, foreign direct investors are watching your programme, who are making investment decisions not to come to Nigeria. There are foreign investors in Nigeria that are making investment decisions to leave Nigeria because of the lie he told.
“One of the lies he told is that President Tinubu has borrowed more than the administrations of Yar’Adua, Jonathan, Buhari. That is a blatant lie”, Mr Omokri said.
To buttress his claims, Mr Omokri referenced figures from the Debt Management Office (DMO), maintaining that President Tinubu had actually reduced Nigeria’s external debt burden since assuming office.
“I have here with me data from the Debt Management Office, and Nigerians who are watching can go to DMO.com and search Debt Management Office, Nigeria State of Indebtedness 2015.
“As of 2015, Nigeria was owing a total of $63 billion. When Buhari was leaving office, Nigeria was owing $113 billion. Today, from the DMO, our debt has gone from $113 billion to $97 billion, meaning that Tinubu has reduced our debt by over $14 billion.
“We should be appreciating this man. Yet Peter Obi came here and lied to the Nigerian people. He took the debts and translated them into naira to make it look like the debts have increased”, he said.
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